4 ms·

>Third, bitcoin is more secure than gold. A single bitcoin address carried on a USB thumb drive could theoretically hold as much value as the U.S. Treasury hold

>Third, bitcoin is more secure than gold. A single bitcoin address carried on a USB thumb drive could theoretically hold as much value as the U.S. Treasury holds in gold bars — without the need for costly militarized facilities like Fort Knox to keep it safe. BTC does not eliminate the need for security. The USB in question would need military grade security, and the exclusivity of the claim of its holder over the ledger entries recorded in it would never be demonstrably secure, because BTC's value is information that can simultaneously exist in multiple locations. The article reads like a high school term paper. BTC is a fiat currency whose scarcity is determined by the actions of some random computer programmers who, for now, aren't leveraging that power for their own personal benefit. Gold is a natural element whose scarcity is a function of the laws of nature, and there are no people today who can measurably exercise their own power to reduce its scarcity. Also, not to nitpick, but a single gold bar also could theoretically have value equivalent to the entire BTC Blockchain. A single dollar bill could too. This would be the case if BTC was valueless. The article isn't very well reasoned.

wyager 5y ago
> The USB in question would need military grade security Which is widely available and effectively free. > BTC is a fiat currency whose scarcity is determined by the actions of some random computer programmers who, for now, aren't leveraging that power for their own personal benefit Statements like this are a sure sign of not actually understanding how Bitcoin works. There is no person or cartel in the world who could successfully unilaterally change the Bitcoin consensus rules. > Gold is a natural element whose scarcity is a function of the laws of nature The amount of gold we’ve mined compared to the amount of gold in nature (on earth, in asteroids, etc) is infinitesimal. The amount of Bitcoin we’ve mined is 89.5%.
- throwdecro 5y ago
  > Which is widely available and effectively free What? Who is going to fight off people trying to obtain or destroy that USB drive to increase the value of their own holdings (i.e. speed up deflation by reducing available bitcoin), or extract the passcode from its owner, for free? EDIT: I realize this is the plot of Goldfinger, but the author did invoke Fort Knox, and the strategy of destroying stores of value to increase the worth of your own stash makes sense.
  - night862 5y ago
    Who does it now? I don't see how it follows that if bitcoin is useful that somehow militaries or rule of law can't exist.
    - throwdecro 5y ago
      > Who does it now? France sent a warship to escort its gold from the US to France. Wasn't free, probably wasn't cheap.
      - night862 5y ago
        Luckily you don't need a ship to transport bitcoin, you could use a telephone or TLS 1.3 Edit: or just keep your private key (which is best practice)
  - wyager 5y ago
    Conveniently, USB drives can be backed up.
    - throwdecro 5y ago
      Sure, but anyone holding that much wealth could expect some kind of "advanced persistent threat" working against them to either destroy all of the backups, or transfer the coins to /dev/null after extracting any passcode from the owner. The keys and anyone that knew how to use them would need a high level of physical security. The "costly militarized facilities" would still be necessary, contrary to the author's statement.

wyager 5y ago

> The USB in question would need military grade security Which is widely available and effectively free. > BTC is a fiat currency whose scarcity is determined by the actions of some random computer programmers who, for now, aren't leveraging that power for their own personal benefit Statements like this are a sure sign of not actually understanding how Bitcoin works. There is no person or cartel in the world who could successfully unilaterally change the Bitcoin consensus rules. > Gold is a natural element whose scarcity is a function of the laws of nature The amount of gold we’ve mined compared to the amount of gold in nature (on earth, in asteroids, etc) is infinitesimal. The amount of Bitcoin we’ve mined is 89.5%.

throwdecro 5y ago
> Which is widely available and effectively free What? Who is going to fight off people trying to obtain or destroy that USB drive to increase the value of their own holdings (i.e. speed up deflation by reducing available bitcoin), or extract the passcode from its owner, for free? EDIT: I realize this is the plot of Goldfinger, but the author did invoke Fort Knox, and the strategy of destroying stores of value to increase the worth of your own stash makes sense.
- night862 5y ago
  Who does it now? I don't see how it follows that if bitcoin is useful that somehow militaries or rule of law can't exist.
  - throwdecro 5y ago
    > Who does it now? France sent a warship to escort its gold from the US to France. Wasn't free, probably wasn't cheap.
    - night862 5y ago
      Luckily you don't need a ship to transport bitcoin, you could use a telephone or TLS 1.3 Edit: or just keep your private key (which is best practice)
- wyager 5y ago
  Conveniently, USB drives can be backed up.
  - throwdecro 5y ago
    Sure, but anyone holding that much wealth could expect some kind of "advanced persistent threat" working against them to either destroy all of the backups, or transfer the coins to /dev/null after extracting any passcode from the owner. The keys and anyone that knew how to use them would need a high level of physical security. The "costly militarized facilities" would still be necessary, contrary to the author's statement.